A Titanic lifejacket at the Liverpool Maritime Museum (photo courtesy of Creative Commons).

Titanic's artifacts and submerged wreckage appraised at $189 million will be up for sale 100 years after the ship sank, the BBC reported.

Auctioneer Arlan Ettinger offered a warning to the Los Angeles Times Thursday that the lot contains more than 5,000 items including a 17-ton hulk of hull that would better suit a shipyard rather than a collector's home.

The buyer must also take on the task of being steward of the collection and the submerged wreckage, keeping some of the collection on public display at any given time and responsibility of preserving the items and ship's remains.

According to the BBC, the seller, RMS Titanic, is the only company legally allowed to retrieve objects from the Titanic's wreck site.

"We expect to identify a buyer capable of serving as a proper steward of the collection and the wreck site, while continuing to build upon the work that RMST and its partners in the oceanographic and archaeological communities have accomplished," RMS Titanic president Christopher Davino told the BBC.

The application process for potential bidders opens April 1.

The BBC reported the auction will take place on April 15, 2012, the centennial of the ship's sinking. This year will also be the 25th anniversary of the recovery of the first artifacts.

"It's like getting a puppy," said Ettinger, president of Guernsey's Auctioneers & Brokers. "When you bring it home, you don't think of all the responsibilities and the time and investment that will be required. You just know you'll have this great companion. But it takes great care."